


Better Than Halloweentown

by flowercrownclem



Category: 5 Seconds of Summer (Band)
Genre: Fluff, Halloween, M/M, One Shot, Pizza Delivery Boy Luke, They're both 18
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-01
Updated: 2016-11-01
Packaged: 2018-08-28 09:22:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,933
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8440147
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/flowercrownclem/pseuds/flowercrownclem
Summary: Michael gets sad at Halloween even though it's his favorite holiday, because he's too old to trick-or-treat but he doesn't want to be a grown up and go to parties. Then Luke knocks on his door to deliver his pizza and all of his plans to stay in for the night are foiled.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [lukemichael_archive](https://archiveofourown.org/users/lukemichael_archive/gifts).



> Sorry if Halloween's already over where you live, but for me there's still a couple of hours left. I submitted this to Joshie (lukemichael) on tumblr earlier in the day but I figured I'd post it here before Halloween is officially over :)  
> I hope you had a good one <3

Michael always got sad right around Halloween, which was ironic considering that it was his favorite holiday. When he was a kid it was the greatest thing in the world, dressing up and getting a huge bag filled to the brim with free candy while running around after dark in a sea of other kids. Now it just depressed him to have to decide if he wanted to go stand awkwardly in the corner of a party full of people he either didn’t know or didn’t like, or to sit at home alone wallowing in Disney Channel Halloween movies and drug store-bought bags of candy.

He was 18 and he should be living in a college dorm and living it up at some frat party on Halloween, instead of living at home and trying to find a job while putting off the entire idea of college. High School was awful enough, why would he want to subject himself to more schooling? His parents didn’t understand, but he figured that if he got a job he might be able to put off being kicked out of the house for a bit longer. Neither of his parents had ever had trouble making friends or fitting in, and were even spending Halloween night at some party one of his dad’s coworkers was throwing.

And so, despite being in the prime of his life and wanting desperately to have  _ something _ festive to do for the night, Michael was spending Halloween completely alone. He ordered a pizza and settled in for a marathon of cheesy seasonal movies, cradling a black plastic cauldron of candy against his chest and almost feeling like he wanted to cry.

What happened to the excitement he used to get from his favorite holiday? He used to spend the weeks leading up to Halloween carving pumpkins and spending hours getting his costume just right. He’d map out his trick-or-treat route for maximum candy and he’d spend the entire next morning sorting his loot by wrapper color. After he got to high school though, his parents were less willing to drive him to his favorite neighborhoods, and the people who answered the doors were less and less friendly to him. After a while he started to feel silly getting dressed up and knocking on a stranger’s door to ask for candy. Eventually he started just going to the store and buying his own candy so that he could at least pretend he was still young and cute enough for a bag of colorful sugary treats.

He was twenty minutes into Halloweentown when the door rang and he sprung towards it, a few crumpled up bills in hand. He pulled open the door, already stretching out his arms to take the pizzas.

“That’ll be sixteen eighty-three,” the boy on the front porch read, his head tilted down to the package in his hands so that Michael could only see dark blonde hair and a pointy little nose.

“Here,” Michael said, and the boy took the bills from him. “You can keep the change.”

“Thanks,” the boy smiled, his whole top row of teeth glinting in the warm yellow light from inside. He easily slid the pair of pizza boxes from their heated pouch and asked, “You having a good Halloween?”

“It’s fine,” Michael shrugged, taking the boxes and stepping back further from the doorway. “Just staying home, laying low. You?”

“You’re not doing anything?” the blonde boy asked, frowning. “Not having friends over or anything?”

“How do you know I don’t have friends in the next room?” Michael asked defensively.

“I’ve been delivering pizza for a while,” the blonde rolled his eyes. “I can tell.”

“I just prefer to spend Halloween like this,” Michael told him, but even he could hear the obvious lie in his voice. “Are you really supposed to be criticizing how customers decide to spend their time?”

“Probably not,” the blonde said sheepishly. He checked his watch and grimaced. “Shit, I’ve got to get to the next house or my boss will be so mad. It’s this huge party and they ordered like twenty pizzas.”

“Okay, well uh, thanks for the pizza I guess,” Michael said, reaching to close the door again.

“I get off in about an hour,” the pizza boy cut in before he could close it all the way.

“Okay?” Michael frowned, peaking out the crack in the door.

“I could come back then,” the boy blushed. “If you want.”

“Why?” Michael asked, his brow furrowing.

“We could do something,” he shrugged. “I dunno. It’d be better than watching Disney movies all night.”

“Like what?” Michael asked, letting the door inch open further.

The boy grinned.

“Get a costume ready. I’ll be back at the end of Halloweentown.”

“Do you expect me to have a costume supply on hand or something?”

“Just poke a couple holes in a bed-sheet or something,” the boy laughed. “Dust off the assless chaps and dig around for a cowboy hat, I don’t know. Figure it out.”

Michael scoffed and closed the door, tossing the pizza boxes on the coffee table and starting to pace. In a way this was just what he’d been asking for, for someone to come and offer him something to do. But what if the pizza boy was a serial killer or something who lured young boys off with his pretty blue eyes and promises of Halloween fun? Except that the boy didn’t look like he could be any older than Michael himself and he looked too pretty to be a murderer. Then Michael remembered a youtube video he watched once with the top 10 most attractive serial killers.

He kept debating it until Marnie and Sophie were trying to cast the spell with their grandmother’s crystal ball together on the screen before finally deciding “Fuck it,” and running off to find his old box of costumes from when he used to dress up.

 

When Michael opened the door for the second time he had a pointy black witches’ hat perched on his lavender hair and a black velvet cape slung over his shoulders. The cape was lined in a violet satin that was too dark to match his hair but felt smooth and rich against his pale arms. The boy on his front porch hadn’t changed out of his uniform of a red polo shirt and matching baseball cap and was holding another stack of pizza boxes.

“I’m Luke, by the way,” he grinned, stepping back so that Michael could follow him outside. “I like your costume.”

“Michael. You’re not wearing one.”

“Yes I am,” Luke scoffed, starting down the sidewalk. “I’m a pizza delivery boy.”

“Your costume can’t just be your normal clothes,” Michael argued. “That’s not how Halloween works. You have to dress up as someone else. That’s the whole point of a costume.”

“Well,  _ this _ costume will get us into any party we want,” Luke told him. “Everyone loves the guy that brings food. Especially when they’re drunk.”

Michael had to stop himself from groaning. He should have known that the delivery boy would just take him to another party. He didn’t want to go to another Halloween party full of people who he couldn’t even make conversation with. That’s why he’d decided to stay home in the first place.

Luke lead him to a huge house with music and people spilling out onto the front lawn and the surrounding street, stumbling around wasted. Luke walked straight in and tilted his head back, yelling “PIZZA!!” at the top of his lungs and making a cheer erupt all around them. In seconds his hands were empty and a dozen people were clapping him on the back, offering him drinks.

“C’mon,” he said in Michael's ear as the crowd dispersed, yelling to be heard over the music. Luke took his hand and tugged him along behind him, weaving through the party guests and dodging stray body parts. He pulled him to a back hallway and started rifling through the hall closet.

“What are you doing?” Michael frowned. “Do you even know these people?”

“No,” Luke hummed, pulling out a pair of crisply folded pillowcases.

“Are you some kind of bed-sheet thief? What is this?”

“Michael,” Luke simpered, handing him one of the pillowcases. “You can’t go trick-or-treating without a bag.”

“We’re going trick-or-treating?” Michael asked, taken aback.

“Yep!” Luke grinned, taking his hand once more and dragging him to the kitchen where he tossed cans of beer into their pillowcases. “Happy Halloween!”

He stopped at the front door to grab a few handfuls of candy from a bowl beside it before they were back outside.

“What’s your favorite place to trick-or-treat?” Luke asked, swinging their still joined hands between them.

“Um, I dunno,” Michael shrugged, even though he did know. “When I was little I’d always go to that neighborhood by the church where all the old people live.”

“Interesting choice,” Luke mused. “Any particular reason?”

“Everyone always goes to the big neighborhoods, you know?” Michael explained. “Those are cool to check out for the decorations, but the old people always go to bed early and leave out buckets on their front porches.”

“Brilliant!” Luke exclaimed, grinning. “Tonight, my handsome young witch, we feast like kings!”

“Um, okay,” Michael said, getting dragged behind Luke who was running full speed back to his car, which still had the logo for his workplace plastered across the side. While he drove, Luke sang loudly along to the CD of cheesy Halloween hits, belting out the Monster Mash and attempting to dance the Thriller at every stoplight. Michael tried hard not to be endeared by it all, but couldn’t keep the fond and slightly incredulous look from his face.

When they got to the desired neighborhood Luke hastily parked the car and ran off before Michael could even unbuckle his seat-belt. The blonde ran from house to house, nearly emptying each bowl of candy into his bag and laughing wildly in the moonlight. Michael joined him, letting out his own tinkling laughter that did nothing to compete with Luke’s loud “ehuhuhuhn”s.

By the time they circled back to the car both of their pillowcases were filled with candy, hanging heavy at their sides. Neither of them could quite get the smiles off of their faces, even Michael who tried quite a few times.

“So was that better than Halloweentown?” Luke asked while they drove back to Michael's house.

“Eh,” Michael shrugged, feigning discontentment. “Maybe not the first one, but at least better than the third.”

“Well, the night is still young,” Luke grinned, “and we haven’t even started the candy trade. I’ve got a whole bunch of butterfingers that I’d like to trade for your ring pop.”

“Better be a shit ton of butterfingers,” Michael told him. “It’s a grape flavored one and it matches my hair.”

“I bet we can still catch Mom’s Got A Date With A Vampire,” Luke said, glancing at the clock on his dash.

“Hurry up!” Michael insisted. “I don’t wanna miss the beginning of it!”

They ended up back at Michael’s house just as the opening credits for the movie were ending and they quickly set up camp on the living room floor, emptying their bags so that their candy mixed together in the middle. Luke ended up letting Michael have all the ring pops, and carefully slid each one onto the smaller boy’s fingers. When Michael’s parents got home the boys were fast asleep in a poorly made blanket fort, surrounded by candy wrappers, with the Disney Channel still playing on the TV.


End file.
